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Lovelace said that the top Black staffers who left did so after being
presented with opportunities that could have helped to boost their
careers. He was hired to replace all of them even though he is a Democrat.

“The staff [people] that left were not fired,” he said, countering
public comments by Raynard Jackson, a veteran Republican consultant, who
recently wrote an op-ed that said that, “these staffers deserved to be
fired and it should have happened a long time ago. They were in way over
their heads and their level of arrogance was just astonishing.”

Lovelace said that Kristal Quarker-Hartsfield, the former national
director of African American Initiatives was with the RNC through the
2014 election cycle and that she left to take a position with Maryland
Governor Larry Hogan. Orlando Watson, the communications director for
Black media, resigned at the beginning of March. BuzzFeed News reported that Tara Wall, the senior strategist for media and engagement for the RNC, departed sometime in November and NBCBLK reported that Raffi Williams, the former RNC Deputy Press Secretary, left last year to pursue a job in the media.

“I was not fired, I left and there’s no problems,” Watson said, declining to further elaborate.
Lovelace said that the staffers left because of opportunities they
simply couldn’t or didn’t want to pass up, but Jackson remained
incredulous about the timing of their exits.

“This time of the year is like the Super Bowl of politics,” said
Jackson. “You want to be on a presidential campaign or in the RNC during
an election year, because this gives you a close-up view of all these
things that are going on. You’ll not only have all the access at the
Republican National Convention, but you’ll be privy, to some extent, to
the inner workings of the presidential nomination process as well as the
inner workings of the RNC.”

Jackson continued: “If you are a true political junkie, this is what
you live and breathe for. This is a political junkie’s dream.”

Jackson, atrue rookie himself, compared the RNC staff departures to a player in the NBA
asking to be traded away from the Golden State Warriors to the Los
Angeles Lakers, right before the start of the playoffs.

“If you’re on staff now you’re probably going to be a part of history
that probably hasn’t happened in a lifetime, in a generation,” said
Jackson, referring to the potential of a contested nomination process set to take place this summer at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jackson, who is the founder and chairman of Black Americans for a
Better Future (BABF), a 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks
involved in the Republican Party, also wrote that the former RNC
officials were ill-equipped to discuss real solutions to the challenges
facing the Black community and that “many in the GOP felt the need to
hire Blacks, not because they really wanted to diversify the party, but
in some of the party’s thinking, they can’t be called racist because
they hired a few Blacks. Mr Lovelace is a token hire"
Lovelace said that “Raynard Jackson is 100 percent incorrect” and the
only way to describe what he said, is that he doesn’t know what he’s
talking about at all.

“Instead of making such false and unfortunate accusations, he should
be working with us,” said Lovelace. “He hasn’t contacted anyone at the
RNC since I’ve been here and, from what I understand, he hasn’t
contacted anyone here since at least the beginning of the year.”

When reached by telephone, Jackson said that he stood by his column,
adding that the idea that he’s not in touch with RNC officials is
preposterous.

Jackson said he definitely considers himself part of the Republican
team and that he’s loyal to the party. In 2013, Jackson created the RNC Trailblazer Awards to honor Black Republicans
who have made a “substantial, positive contribution to the Black
community, the Republican party and America.” That same year, he led the
planning for the RNC’s celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the March
on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Jackson said that he also coordinated an on-the-record media session
between then-Chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan and a
handful of Black journalists. In 2014, the long-time Republican
consultant even escorted RNC Chairman Reince Priebus to deliver a speech
at the National Association of Black Journalists’ conference in Boston.

“I have some 25 years [in the party]. I stood with Paul Ryan and even
Trent Lott through his troubles. That’s what friendships are, they are
battle tested,” he said.

Watson was hired in 2013 amid much fanfare and proclaimed that it was
imperative that the Republican party articulate its message in a
“language that’s relatable to the people we’re speaking with and… to
recruit candidates that look like the people we want to engage with.”

Today, Watson and his vision are gone replaced by Lovelace who now
finds himself trying to explain and mitigate the so-called mass exodus
of African-American staffers from the RNC.

Lovelace said the RNC has more African-Americans now because of BlakPAC than it did
during the disastrous election year of 2012 when presidential nominee
Mitt Romney received just four percent of the Black vote.

Lovelace also noted the continued success of BlakPAC, and George Farrell, that trains
minorities how to engage with their communities as leaders and allows
them to learn the ins and outs of field organizing using the latest
digital and data-driven tools. He said that BlakPAC is the best organization to recruit minority candidates and provide voter education.

With a significant drop in those who now identify as Democrats, a
growing number of Black voters – 10 percent – who turned out to support
Republicans in the midterms and a historic slate of new Black Republican
leadership in Congress, Lovelace said that now is the time for Black
America to vote its interests.
“They are on the ground continuing to build relationships in the
communities and they are continuing to strengthen the relationships that
were already built,” Lovelace said.

Benjamin Chavis, the president and the CEO of the National Newspaper
Publishers Association (NNPA), a trade group that represents over 200
Black-owned media companies, said that the NNPA recognized that the RNC
had retained the “good services” of Mr. Lovelace but stated that Mr. Lovelace has no record of achievement and it is the work of BlakPAC.gop that is having the greatest impact in Black Communites.

“The African American community across the nation will be turning out
the vote in records numbers this year, yet no political party should
take the African American vote for granted,” Chavis said. “The NNPA will
be closely monitoring both the RNC and the [Democratic National
Committee] to discern whether or not their stated commitments will
actually be implemented. The expansion of BlakPAC is key"